Gary Fisher (born 1950) is considered one of the inventors of the mountain bike. On a personal level, mountain bikers are unsure how to take his eclectic personal style, such things as rose-tinted diamond-shaped sunglasses, brightly colored suits, and "soul patch" facial hair.
But those things are looked at with amusement by mountain bikers in the know -as you might look at your own father- because of the fact that Gary loves mountain biking and continues his own avid riding. Fisher started competing in road and track races at the age of 12. He was suspended from the sport in 1968 because race organizers felt his hair was too long, and cited a rule that agreed with them. But by 1972 this rule had been repealed and Fisher's cycling career continued. In more recent decades, Gary has won the difficult TransAlp race in Europe and a Masters XC national title.
Perhaps inspired by a bicycle he saw that had been built by Russ Mahon, Fisher went to work on his 1930's era Schwinn Excelsior X bicycle in 1975. His innovations to the model included drum brakes, motorcycle brake levers and cables (to improve stopping power for mountain use, thumb shifters and derailleurs (so that it could climb up the mountain), and triple front chain rings, all taken from "junkers" that Fisher and friends found at local bike shops.
The next year, along with his then-roomate Charlie Kelly, Fisher started the "Repack" race, so named because the tortuous downhill route chosen near Fairfax, California made the riders use their coaster brakes so much that it was necessary for them to repack the smoking hubs with grease after every run.
It was Kelly who coined the term "mountain bike" in 1979, after a phrase he had heard used by a mechanic. That same year, Fisher and Kelly founded MountainBikes, the first company to specialize in the manufacture of this type of bicycle. Frames for the bikes were built by Tom Ritchey, who went on to found a company famous in its own right. The first model sold for $US 1300; 160 were manufactured in the first run.
1980 saw the introduction of Shimano components into MountainBikes's products, and also an ill-fated attempt by the pair to trademark the term "Mountain Bike." The company dissolved in 1983; Fisher founded his more well known company Fisher MountainBikes the same year. Eventually this company was purchased by Trek in 1993. Fisher remains involved with the bikes' design and marketing, along with being the scout and mentor to innumerable racers who've been sponsored by the team through the years. Perhaps the best known of these was the 1996 and 2000 gold-medal winner in women's mountain biking: Paola Pezzo.
Fisher was inducted into the mountain bike hall of fame in 1988. Outside magazine named him one of the "50 who left their mark" in the sport in 2000, and Smithsonian magazine honored him in 1994 as the "Founding Father of Mountain Bikes." In 1998, Gary Fisher was recognized by Popular Mechanics for his innovations in sports.
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